Christmas In July

For some of you planners (and you know who you are) you have already begun to think about Christmas.  What will I get for …?

This is your lucky day because I have a gift idea for you.  It is a unique present only you can give and it is free.  It will just take some time going down memory lane.

We are containers of memories – Christmas celebrations, a special trip, or a funny event.  These rich treasures can be passed on just as you can pass on Aunt Maude’s china tea set.  The tea set might be more valuable from an economic standpoint, but I would rather have the memories.  This is your history that I will not know unless you share it with me.

I have a great aunt who took an auto trip from Arkansas to California back in the day when you stopped more for car repairs than site seeing visits.  The landscape was not dotted with chain motels so I believe camping was involved.  As I recall the stories were hilarious and I would love to have a copy of them, but sadly they are as gone as she is.  If only I had that recorded memory. Your stories can capture a written narrative for your family that will be unmatched.

I know, I know you are not a writer.  That’s okay because here you are a teller.  You are telling your story with your voice in a way no one else can and that is a high gift indeed.  Imagine yourself calling your relative and telling them about the time you hid the butter in the bushes when you left Chicago for a couple of weeks because you knew the weather would keep it cold.  Or the time you were learning to drive and drove on a ranch managing to hit the only object around, a metal fence. Tell the funny, the scary and the sad.  Your stories and your voice are unique.  They will paint a picture no one else can.  Don’t write.  Tell.

Now your family might not be interested in such stories, but there will come a time they wished they had asked more questions and heard more tales.  So record a memory here or there and create this rare gift.